Who We Are and What We Do

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

(Matthew 11:15)

We are an institute, based out of Wycliffe College (University of Toronto), committed to supporting those who serve and research the Canadian Church through data-informed research, tools, encounters, and insights. We are especially committed to understanding:

  • Who goes to what churches?
  • What are congregations and parishes most often doing and what resources are they using?
  • How do churchgoers/parishioners work together?
  • In what contexts do they serve and worship?
  • What is their past, present, and future trajectory?

We have been generously sponsored by a $1,000,000 grant from the Lil Foundation’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative

  • We initiate and support church research:
    This includes our own research projects (like our Divine Impulse Project), research partnerships, and independent research that we resource and amplify such as Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s youth and social media project.
  • We gather church leaders and researchers and facilitate conversation and cooperation between them:
    Often this means small, one-on-one ‘chats’, but we also host larger academic and denomination meetings and public-facing conferences like our annual Canadian Church Research Symposium.
  • We facilitate practical learning: we feature a monthly bulletin about recent discoveries, build explorable data visualization, publish in academic and public, and teach courses for scholars and practitioners.